Ten Westwood student athletes sign their services to colleges

Athletic Coordinator Anthony Wood leads lights out ceremony with blow horn

By RYAN METZ

Special to the Leader

For the 10 Westwood student athletes that signed letter of intents Wednesday morning, it will be a time that’s pretty memorable.

Forget the fact that they inked their names to scholarships to play collegiately, it’s the matter of the way they did it.

With freezing temperatures triggering rolling blackouts throughout Texas, Athletic Coordinator Anthony Wood emceed the ceremony in the gymnasium with a blow horn. Many of the athletes actually signed their papers with lights emanating from cell phones in the dark.

“Not how I thought it was going to go,” said an excited Ellie Arends, who will be running distance at North Texas next fall. “It’s definitely very eventful with no lights on.”

The Warriors football team, which finished 5-6 last season, had the most student athletes signees with three. Offensive lineman Zach Crawford signed with Texas State, receivers Grant Peterson signed with Rice and Kyle Jacobson signed with Austin College.

“We’ve put a lot of hard work here. It’s good that the hard work is paying off,” said Crawford, whose recruiting class will be one of Texas State’s foundations as they enter the FBS and WAC in 2013.

Added Peterson, who will bulk up and move to tight end for Rice: “It’s exciting because I feel like I accomplished one of my goals. I want to keep working hard to continue playing. I really loved Rice and the academics. It was a win-win.”

The girl’s softball team had Emily Mayfield sign with St. Edward’s and Jonelle Feikis with The University of Texas at Dallas.

“I’m super excited to start a new chapter,” Feikis said. “(St. Edward’s is) a really competitive D-III program.

Mikayla Engel will take her soccer talents to St. Edward’s next fall. Her teammate Nicole Frank signed with Texas at Dallas.

Baseball player Brooks Eady signed to play at McLennan Community College.

Arguably highlighting the event was track star Aikan Graham who signed on to be a hurdler at Texas A&M. The two-time regional qualifier hopes to make a name for himself, following in the footsteps of his Olympic medal-winning father Winthrop Graham.

“My goal started when I was in middle school,” said Graham, who joins the reigning track and field national champions. “I went there on the visit and I really liked the facility. My host there was dedicated to track and that’s the kind of people I want to be with.”

Published in the Round Rock Leader on Feb. 4, 2011.